Female workout plan for beginners – with a little extra!

Don't know how to start weight training? Are you afraid of the gym? Don't worry, Builder is here to help you out!

We have a lot of readers who, for various reasons only trained in their homes, with or without weights. We have heard stories about people not wanting to enter the gym because they were afraid of bullies and of what they are going to say about their physique.

If you feel the same, please do the following: do not care about what other people think or say about you. Also, don't forget that everybody has to start somewhere. You are not an exception.

But if you do not make that first step, you will never be able to make the slightest change in your physique. In this sport you have to defeat yourself, not others. So do not hesitate, get to the gym and do your first weight training workout with the help of this article. We'll provide the exact workout plan you have to do, and we'll tell you how to get the best results with proper nutrition, supplementation and rest.

Foreword about the workout

Okay, so much for the prep time. You will execute most of the exercises on machines, for various reasons. Machines are much safer than free weights for beginners because they have a set movement, the weights move on a fixed track, therefore it's easier to do the exercises with the proper form and the risk of injury is lower.

It is more than enough to do this workout plan twice a week for beginners, with moderate weights. Choose weights you can perform the exercises with a proper form. We recommend using pyramid training during the workout. This method consists of slowly increasing the number of weights from set to set, this allows your body to get a proper warmup, so the muscle fibres, joints and ligaments can get used to the tension, reducing the risk of an injury even further.

Next to the exercises you will find the number of sets (mostly 3) and the number of reps (repetitions, ranging from 15 to 25). Click on the exercises to see how to perform them correctly.

Warmup means 5 to 10 minutes of moderate cardio (treadmill, ellipticals, magnetic bike, etc.). A walk on a treadmill (5.8 km/h) will do. As soon as you're finished with this, the next thing you need to do is arm circles, hip circles, ankle circles and wrist circles to minimise the risk of an injury. Yes, warmup takes time, but it's worth it.

A little extra

Weight training is mainly used to build muscles and shape physiques, there is no better method. You can burn some calories with weight training, we can boost our metabolism with it, but losing fat mass is done with cardio/aerobic training and with proper nutrition.

We strongly recommend aerobic training (walking for 40 to 60 minutes) two times a week, even if your goal is to build muscle, not to lose fat. You can do this either on rest days or after your weight training. We believe that HIIT training is one of the best ways to lose fat, but if you're a beginner, you should start with aerobic training. Yes, it takes more time, but just like warmup, it's worth the effort.

There are some exercises you can incorporate into your workout plan, but only after you have achieved a certain level of fitness by doing the workout plan that we mentioned above for weeks – if not months. Important: muscle building is a very slow process, it takes a lot of energy, effort and money (proper diet, gym membership, supplements, etc.). You don't have to worry about becoming too muscular. A female can never be as muscular as a male – even with steroids use (which we oppose here at Builder).

If you train four-five times a week, you cook, you prepare your meals, you do the dishes, you sleep 8 hours a day, then you should treat yourself from time to time. This is where supplements come into play.

The most basic supplement of all is protein powders or vitamins. We could argue about that because there is no muscle building process without protein, but without vitamins, there is no health.

Protein powders are necessary for three various reasons. First of all, liquid protein reaches muscle fibres much faster than solid food – and this is crucial after a hard workout. Second, it is much easier to take in protein in liquid state than in solid state. Last, but not least, they are very tasty, so if you crave for sweets during any time of the day, you can always drink a protein shake without feeling guilty. But be aware: you should not cover more than 50% of your daily protein intake from supplements.

The best time to use protein powders is after a workout or in the mornings after you wake up because these are the times when protein must be available for muscles as fast as possible. The reason behind this is easy as ABC: weight training causes microscopic damages in the muscle fibres, and they regenerate themselves with protein, and when you sleep 8 hours, it means that muscles have been on "starvation mode" during your sleep.

There is one more tick regarding protein shakes: most protein powders come with very few carbohydrates (or none at all), but after a workout, fast acting carbohydrates are also needed as they help protein to reach muscles faster.

Other supplements can also be very helpful for you. For example, BCAAs (Branched-Chain Amino Acids) protect the muscle from breaking down during the workout, creatine can boost the power of your muscles, weight gainers contain a whole lot of useful ingredients, so you don't have to buy everything separately. Last, but not least, let's not forget about the crucial role of joint support formulas.

Alright, now you know what to do and why, so it's time to get up from your computer and get into the gym. Remember: it's all about you, so do not care about what others might say!